Malik Cox grew up in the Marcy Projects in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York and was next door to Shawn Carter. Carter makes his way with the pseudonym Jay-Z, Cox chooses Memphis Bleek and makes his debut in "Reasonable Doubt" (1996), Jay-Z's first album, appearing on both "Coming of Age" and the bonus track "Can I Live II". Both choices aren't the cream of the album, but that's not enough to stop Bleek's rise, which continues its journey on the circuit through the soundtrack of the movie "Streets Is Watching" (1998) and guesting on Jay-Z's high-profile albums ("Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life", 1998), Foxy Brown ("Chyna Doll", 1999) and Ja Rule ("Venni, Vetti, Vecci", 1999), before releasing his debut album.
The music combines beats from Buckwild, Irv Gotti, J-Runnah, Swizz Beatz, Mr. Fingers, Dark Half, Big Demi, Patrick Viala, Omen and The Burn Unit. Guests include Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Ja Rule, Noreaga, Pain in da Ass, Reb Dark Half and Da Ranjahz.
The album is opened by Pain in da Ass, the same guy who opened Jay-Z's last three albums, with a long quote that pays homage to the introduction of the film "Goodfellas" (1990) and ends with a reference to "Scarface" (1983), the same cry present in the aforementioned three Carter records. "Who's Sleeping" is the first real track: Patrick Viala places a mainstream pop rhythm, melodic, accessible, enjoyable, Bleek's style is decent and he's joined by another unknown dude, Reb. The third song is identified as the first single of this album, the banger "Memphis Bleek Is...", released two months before the CD: horribly and squalidly pop production, regular mediocre rapping by Memphis Bleek who can't save the cut despite trying really hard. The rhythm is terrible, I'm going to check the credits to understand who the monster behind the keyboards is: obviously you can't go wrong, Swizz Beatz. Four minutes of this is unbearable torture.
The fourth choice is the album's second single, "What You Think of That", succeeding the album by two months: Buckwild's bouncy, commercial beat, the beatsmith of DITC creates a minimal and skeletal rhythm, straight to the club with a bare drum. Memphis Bleek sounds badly and, luckily for him, Jay-Z arrives to raise the cut. This track is a good example of the fact that Memphis Bleek songs always last two or three minutes too long, this is close to five minutes when its ideal duration is around ninety seconds. Irv Gotti & Mr. Fingers make yet another cut aimed at radio and clubs, bouncy beat where Bleek and guest Ja Rule sound bad. A skit from Pain in da Ass follows which precedes "Stay Alive in NYC": J-Runnah gives us a rare accessible production on this album, dropping a nice piano loop combined with a drum that for once doesn't make a mess, it's heavy and bare, but livable and worthily supports inspired and fast delivery by the boy from Marcy, which flows well on this beat. The hook remains a very weak point in the construction of his tracks, but in this case it's fine.
Irv Gotti puts some shrill synths almost to the point of annoyance for the eighth choice, the rest of his rhythm is good and almost accessible, even if in the end it turns out to be an attempt close to g-funk to sell copies also on the West Coast. The rapper spits bars with good rapping and sounds inspired, his hook is still weak. Da Ranjahz joins Memphis Bleek on "N.O.W.", track number nine which features an almost decent Dark Half beat, albeit with annoying elements, good execution of guests who easily overshadow the host. “Everybody” credits Omen behind the keyboards, the guy provides a quiet, sad, decent and accessible mainstream beat, while Bleek delivers well in a passable four-minute track. Dark Half returns to the album on the following track alongside Memphis at the mic on a minimal beat by Big Demi.
"My Hood to Your Hood" boasts the duo Irv Gotti and Mr. Fingers at the tables: the rhythm winks at crunk, with annoying and ridiculous southern sounds, inside Beanie Sigel can't save this thing even going back and forth with Memphis Bleek, hardcore here. This is followed by yet another ridiculous production, credited to The Burn Unit, Noreaga supports the author in one of the many unmemorable cuts of the project. In the final song, Bleek offers lyrics about his past as a drug dealer in a self-deprecating passage in which he defines himself as a regular cat, on some of the best music on the album, provided by what is undoubtedly the best producer on the project, J-Runnah. Melodic musical carpet, honest drums, good samples, enjoyable jazz vibes, regular rapping of a regular cat.
Memphis Bleek should be Jay-Z's designated heir by Carter himself, however, the boy isn't the right person and this effort is not the proof: his skills are limited and he's simply copying his mentor in both lyric writing (materialism, women, money, crime, drugs, other thug rap themes) both in rapping, in addition to the fact that the music never works in these fifty minutes.
Published by Roc-A-Fella and by Bleek's newly formed label Get Low Records, the album is distributed by Universal, enters the top ten of the Billboard 200, is first among hip-hop releases and was certified gold by the RIAA after one month.
Rating: 4/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment